A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents by James D. Richardson

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SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the CommandingGeneral, embracing the substance of the answers of the severalofficers who were applied to to furnish the information required by aresolution of the Senate of the 12th March last, referred by you to thisDepartment, requesting the President to communicate to the Senate, if inhis judgment compatible with the public interests, any information whichmay be in the possession of the Government, or which can be convenientlyobtained, of the military and naval preparations of the Britishauthorities on the northern frontier of the United States from LakeSuperior to the Atlantic Ocean, distinguishing the permanent from thetemporary and field works, and particularly by noticing those which arewithin the claimed limits of the United States.

This report and a letter of General Scott on the subject, which wastransmitted to the Senate on the 27th of March last, furnish all theinformation the Department is in possession of in relation to therequirements of the above resolution.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J.R. POINSETT.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,

_Washington, June 26, 1840_.

The SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR: I have the honor to report that in obedience to your instructionsletters have been addressed to the various officers who it was supposedmight be able to procure the information required by the resolution ofthe Senate of the 12th of March, to wit: "_Resolved,_ That the Presidentof the United States be requested to communicate to the Senate, if inhis judgment compatible with the public interest, any information whichmaybe in possession of the Government, or which can be convenientlyobtained, of the military and naval preparations of the Britishauthorities on the northern frontier of the United States from LakeSuperior to the Atlantic Ocean, distinguishing the permanent from thetemporary and field works, and particularly by noting those which arewithin the claimed limits of the United States." In answer to the letteraddressed to him on the subject, and with regard to the Senate'sresolution as far as relates to "military preparations of the Britishauthorities on the northern frontier of the United States," GeneralScott communicates the following facts: That he has paid but littleattention to the forts and barracks erected by the British authoritiesnear the borders of Maine _above_ Frederickton, in New Brunswick, or inUpper Canada _above_ Cornwall, being of the fixed opinion that all suchstructures would be of little or no military value to either of theparties in the event of a new war between the United States and GreatBritain; that he was last summer at the foot of Lake Superior, andneither saw nor heard of any British fort or barracks on the St. MarysRiver; that between Lakes Huron and Brie the British have three sets ofbarracks--one at Windsor, opposite to Detroit; one at Sandwich, a littlelower down; and the third at Malden, 18 miles below the first--all builtof sawed logs, strengthened by blockhouses, loopholes, etc.; that Maldenhas long been a military post, with slight defenses; these have beenrecently strengthened. The works at Sandwich and Windsor have also,he thinks, been erected within the last six or eight months. That nearthe mouth of the Niagara the British have two small forts--George andMississauga; both existed during the last war; the latter may be termeda permanent work. Slight barracks have been erected within the last twoyears on the same side near the Falls and at Chippewa, with breastworksat the latter place, but nothing, he believes, above the work firstnamed on the Niagara which can be termed a fort.

That since the commencement of recent troubles and (consequent thereon)within our own limits Fort William Henry, at Kingston, and FortWellington, opposite to Ogdensburg (old works), have both beenstrengthened within themselves, besides the addition of dependencies.These forts may be called permanent. That on the St. Lawrence belowPrescott, and confronting our territory, he knows of no other militarypost. Twelve miles above, at Brockville, there may be temporary barracksand breastworks; that he knows that of late Brockville has been amilitary station.

That in the system of defenses on the approaches to Montreal the Isleaux Noix, a few miles below our line, and in the outlet of LakeChamplain, stands at the head. This island contains within itselfa system of permanent works of great strength; on them the BritishGovernment has from time to time expended much skill and labor.

That Odletown, near our line, on the western side of Lake Champlain,has been a station for a body of Canadian militia for two years,to guard the neighborhood from refugee incendiaries from our side.He thinks that barracks have been erected there for the accommodation ofthose troops, and also at a station, with the like object, near Alburgh,Vt. He believes that there are no important British forts or extensiveBritish barracks on our borders from Vermont to Maine. In respect tosuch structures on the disputed territory, that Governor Fairfield'spublished letters contain fuller information than has reached himthrough any other channel; that he has heard of no new militarypreparations by the British authorities on the St. Croix orPassamaquoddy Bay.

That among such preparations, perhaps he ought not to omit the factthat Great Britain, besides numerous corps of well-organized andwell-instructed militia, has at this time within her North AmericanProvinces more than 20,000 of her best regular troops. The whole ofthose forces might be brought to the verge of our territory in a fewdays. Two-thirds of that regular force has arrived out since the springof 1838. General Scott states that he has had the honor to reportdirectly to the Secretary of War with regard to the naval force recentlymaintained upon the American lakes by Great Britain. In answer to asimilar letter to that addressed to General Scott, General Brady writesfrom Detroit that the only permanent work of which he has any knowledgeis the one at Fort Malden, which has in the last year been thoroughlyrepaired, and good substantial barracks of wood have been erected withinthe works, sufficient, he thinks, to contain six if not eight hundredmen; that the timber on the island of Bois Blanc has been partly takenoff and three small blockhouses erected on the island. These are all themilitary improvements he knows of between the mouth of Detroit River andthe outlet of Lake Superior. That temporary barracks of wood capable ofcontaining perhaps 150 men have been erected opposite to Detroit; thatsome British militia are stationed along the St. Clair River.

Colonel Bankhead writes that of the military and naval preparations ofthe British on the northern frontier of the United States, he can onlystate that Fort Mississauga, nearly opposite our Fort Niagara, has beenenlarged and strengthened; that permanent and extensive barracks werecommenced last summer at Toronto and are probably completed by thistime, and that a large vessel for a steamer was being constructed lastfall at Niagara City by and for the service of the Government; thatthe British Government has on Lake Ontario a steamboat commanded andofficered by officers of the navy, and is commissioned, he presumes,as a Government vessel; that the authorities of Upper Canada had lastsummer in their service on Lake Erie two steamboats, which were at firsthired from citizens of Buffalo, but which they subsequently purchased,as he was informed.

Lieutenant-Colonel Crane writes from Buffalo that the only military workin that vicinity undergoing repairs (within his knowledge) is FortMississauga, at the mouth of the Niagara River, on the Canada side,which the English have been repairing and extending for two years past,and it is believed to be now in a very efficient state; that there havebeen rumors of armed steamers being built or building at Chippewa, buton inquiry he could learn of none except the ordinary steamboats for thenavigation of the lakes. It has been said, however, that one is buildingon Lake Ontario by the English, and intended for the revenue service,but he does not know what truth there is in this statement.

Lieutenant-Colonel Pierce reports from Plattsburg that he has noknowledge of any military or naval preparations of the Britishauthorities on the line of frontier adjacent to his command, comprisingwhat is generally called the Lake Champlain frontier, except theintroduction of troops at Odletown and Napierville, near the boundaryline between New York and Canada, on the west side of the lake, and alsothe establishment of a line of posts from Missisquoi Bay, on the eastside of the lake, along and near to the Vermont frontier as far as theConnecticut River, the erection of a new barrack and fieldwork at St.John, and the repairs and armament of the Isle aux Noix, with increasedforce at both of these posts; that none of the positions so occupied byBritish troops are within the claimed limits of the United States; thatthese military preparations (it has been heretofore understood) havebeen made by the British authorities to suppress rebellion andinsurrection among the Canadian population.

Captain Johnson reports from Fort Brady that he has heard nothing onthe subject of the resolution but mere rumors, and that there is noappearance of any works going up anywhere on the Canada side of theSt. Marys River. The files of the Adjutant-General's Office have beenexamined, but no further information has been elicited.

Respectfully submitted,

ALEX. MACOMB,

_Major-General_.

WASHINGTON, _June 29, 1840_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit herewith a communication of the Secretary of War, accompaniedby a report of the Commanding General of the Army, embracing all theinformation which can be obtained in answer to a resolution of the Houseof Representatives of the 6th of April, 1840, requesting to be furnishedwith any information in possession of the executive department showingthe military preparation of Great Britain by introducing troops intoCanada or New Brunswick or erecting or repairing fortifications on ournorthern or northeastern boundary or by preparing naval armaments on anyof the great northern lakes, and what preparations, if any, have beenmade by this Government to put the United States, and especially thosefrontiers, in a posture of defense against Great Britain in case of war.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON CITY, _June 29, 1840_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit the inclosed report of the Secretary of War, withaccompanying documents, furnishing all the information the Departmenthas been able to obtain in relation to any violation of or desire on thepart of Great Britain to annul the agreement entered into between thatGovernment and the United States in the month of April, 1817, relativeto the naval force to be maintained upon the American lakes, called forby a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th March last.

M. VAN BUREN.

Hon. R.M. JOHNSON,

_President of the Senate_.

SIR: I transmit herewith to the Senate a statement from the Secretary ofthe Navy of the transfers which have been made since the commencement ofthe present year from different appropriations for the naval service toother appropriations for the same service, which had become necessaryfor the public interests.

The law under which these transfers were made conveys no authority forrefunding the different amounts which may be transferred. On thecontrary, so soon as the appropriations for the year shall pass and themeans be furnished for refunding these sums the repayments would beprohibited by the law of 3d March, 1809, in relation to generaltransfers.

Some authority to refund the amounts which may be transferred underthe law of 30th of June, 1834, seems so obviously indispensable to anybeneficial exercise of the power which it grants that its omission maybe presumed to have been accidental.

The subject is respectfully referred to the consideration of Congressfor such action as they may deem proper to accomplish the restoration ofthese transfers, and thus confirm the original appropriations as theyare established by Congress, instead of leaving their expenditurediscretionary with the Executive.

M. VAN BUREN.

JULY 2, 1840.

[The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives.]

WASHINGTON, _July 20, 1840_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of the11th March last, a report[81] from the Secretary of War, accompaniedby a communication and other documents from the Commissioner ofIndian Affairs.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 81: Relating to purchases of Indian lands since theestablishment of the Federal Government.]

JULY 25, 1840.

The President of the United States, in pursuance of a resolution ofthe Senate of the 20th instant, herewith transmits to the honorableSecretary of the Senate a copy of the report of Captain M.C. Perryin relation to the light-houses of England and France.

M. VAN BUREN.

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

WASHINGTON CITY, _March 31, 1840_.

The President of the United States, finding that different rules prevailat different places as well in respect to the hours of labor by personsemployed on the public works under the immediate authority of himselfand the Departments as also in relation to the different classes ofworkmen, and believing that much inconvenience and dissatisfaction wouldbe removed by adopting a uniform course, hereby directs that all suchpersons, whether laborers or mechanics, be required to work only thenumber of hours prescribed by the ten-hour system.

M. VAN BUREN.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1840_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciouslycontinued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of anotheryear the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldomhas this favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages ofdisease or the labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and neverbefore have our relations with other countries been placed on a morefavorable basis than that which they so happily occupy at this criticalconjuncture in the affairs of the world. A rigid and perseveringabstinence from all interference with the domestic and politicalrelations of other States, alike due to the genius and distinctivecharacter of our Government and to the principles by which it isdirected; a faithful observance in the management of our foreignrelations of the practice of speaking plainly, dealing justly, andrequiring truth and justice in return as the best conservatives ofthe peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our manifestations offriendship in the commercial privileges we concede and those we requirefrom others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt to maintainin every emergency our own rights as we are from principle averse to theinvasion of those of others, have given to our country and Government astanding in the great family of nations of which we have just cause tobe proud and the advantages of which are experienced by our citizensthroughout every portion of the earth to which their enterprising andadventurous spirit may carry them. Few, if any, remain insensible tothe value of our friendship or ignorant of the terms on which it canbe acquired and by which it can alone be preserved.

A series of questions of long standing, difficult in their adjustmentand important in their consequences, in which the rights of our citizensand the honor of the country were deeply involved, have in the course ofa few years (the most of them during the successful Administration of myimmediate predecessor) been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; andthe most important of those remaining are, I am happy to believe, in afair way of being speedily and satisfactorily adjusted.

With all the powers of the world our relations are those of honorablepeace. Since your adjournment nothing serious has occurred to interruptor threaten this desirable harmony. If clouds have lowered above theother hemisphere, they have not cast their portentous shadows upon ourhappy shores. Bound by no entangling alliances, yet linked by a commonnature and interest with the other nations of mankind, our aspirationsare for the preservation of peace, in whose solid and civilizingtriumphs all may participate with a generous emulation. Yet it behoovesus to be prepared for any event and to be always ready to maintain thosejust and enlightened principles of national intercourse for which thisGovernment has ever contended. In the shock of contending empires itis only by assuming a resolute bearing and clothing themselves withdefensive armor that neutral nations can maintain their independentrights.

The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy betweenthe United States and Great Britain having in a great measure subsided,it is hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its finalsettlement. Both Governments must now be convinced of the dangers withwhich the question is fraught, and it must be their desire, as it istheir interest, that this perpetual cause of irritation should beremoved as speedily as practicable. In my last annual message you wereinformed that the proposition for a commission of exploration and surveypromised by Great Britain had been received, and that a counter project,including also a provision for the certain and final adjustment ofthe limits in dispute, was then before the British Government for itsconsideration. The answer of that Government, accompanied by additionalpropositions of its own, was received through its minister here sinceyour separation. These were promptly considered, such as were deemedcorrect in principle and consistent with a due regard to the just rightsof the United States and of the State of Maine concurred in, and thereasons for dissenting from the residue, with an additional suggestionon our part, communicated by the Secretary of State to Mr. Fox. Thatminister, not feeling himself sufficiently instructed upon some of thepoints raised in the discussion, felt it to be his duty to refer thematter to his own Government for its further decision. Having now beenfor some time under its advisement, a speedy answer may be confidentlyexpected. From the character of the points still in difference and theundoubted disposition of both parties to bring the matter to an earlyconclusion, I look with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactorytermination of the negotiation. Three commissioners were appointedshortly after the adjournment of Congress under the act of the lastsession providing for the exploration and survey of the line whichseparates the States of Maine and New Hampshire from the BritishProvinces. They have been actively employed until their progress wasinterrupted by the inclemency of the season, and will resume theirlabors as soon as practicable in the ensuing year.

It is understood that their respective examinations will throw new lightupon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any erroneousimpressions which may have been made elsewhere prejudicial to the rightsof the United States. It was, among other reasons, with a view ofpreventing the embarrassments which in our peculiar system of governmentimpede and complicate negotiations involving the territorial rights of aState that I thought it my duty, as you have been informed on a previousoccasion, to propose to the British Government, through its minister atWashington, that early steps should be taken to adjust the points ofdifference on the line of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior tothe most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods by the arbitrationof a friendly power in conformity with the seventh article of the treatyof Ghent. No answer has yet been returned by the British Government tothis proposition.

With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the remaining powers ofEurope I am happy to inform you our relations continue to be of the mostfriendly character. With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navigation,based upon liberal principles of reciprocity and equality, was concludedin March last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, willbe duly laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation thatit provides for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing questionof controversy, thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct thefriendly and mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations.A messenger has been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin,where, according to stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged.I am happy to announce to you that after many delays and difficulties atreaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and Portugalwas concluded and signed at Lisbon on the 26th of August last by theplenipotentiaries of the two Governments. Its stipulations are foundedupon those principles of mutual liberality and advantage which theUnited States have always sought to make the basis of their intercoursewith foreign powers, and it is hoped they will tend to foster andstrengthen the commercial intercourse of the two countries.

Under the appropriation of the last session of Congress an agent hasbeen sent to Germany for the purpose of promoting the interests of ourtobacco trade.

The commissioners appointed under the convention for the adjustmentof claims of citizens of the United States upon Mexico having met andorganized at Washington in August last, the papers in the possession ofthe Government relating to those claims were communicated to the board.The claims not embraced by that convention are now the subject ofnegotiation between the two Governments through the medium of ourminister at Mexico.

Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our relations with thedifferent Governments of South America. I regret, however, to be obligedto inform you that the claims of our citizens upon the late Republic ofColombia have not yet been satisfied by the separate Governments intowhich it has been resolved.

The charge d'affaires of Brazil having expressed the intention ofhis Government not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will cease to beobligatory upon either party on the 12th day of December, 1841, when theextensive commercial intercourse between the United States and that vastEmpire will no longer be regulated by express stipulations.

It affords me pleasure to communicate to you that the Government ofChili has entered into an agreement to indemnify the claimants in thecase of the _Macedonian_ for American property seized in 1819, and toadd that information has also been received which justifies the hope ofan early adjustment of the remaining claims upon that Government.

The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention between theUnited States and Texas for marking the boundary between them have,according to the last report received from our commissioner, surveyedand established the whole extent of the boundary north along the westernbank of the Sabine River from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico tothe thirty-second degree of north latitude. The commission adjournedon the 16th of June last, to reassemble on the 1st of November for thepurpose of establishing accurately the intersection of the thirty-seconddegree of latitude with the western bank of the Sabine and the meridianline thence to Red River. It is presumed that the work will be concludedin the present season.

The present sound condition of their finances and the success with whichembarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insurmountable,have been overcome are matters upon which the people and Government ofthe United States may well congratulate themselves. An overflowingTreasury, however it may be regarded as an evidence of publicprosperity, is seldom conducive to the permanent welfare of any people,and experience has demonstrated its incompatibility with the salutaryaction of political institutions like those of the United States. Oursafest reliance for financial efficiency and independence has, on thecontrary, been found to consist in ample resources unencumbered withdebt, and in this respect the Federal Government occupies a singularlyfortunate and truly enviable position.

When I entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 1837,the act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a courseof rapid execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, inpursuance of its provisions, deposited with the States in the months ofJanuary, April, and July of that year. In May there occurred a generalsuspension of specie payments by the banks, including, with very fewexceptions, those in which the public moneys were deposited and uponwhose fidelity the Government had unfortunately made itself dependentfor the revenues which had been collected from the people and wereindispensable to the public service.

This suspension and the excesses in banking and commerce out of which itarose, and which were greatly aggravated by its occurrence, made to agreat extent unavailable the principal part of the public money then onhand, suspended the collection of many millions accruing on merchants'bonds, and greatly reduced the revenue arising from customs and thepublic lands. These effects have continued to operate in various degreesto the present period, and in addition to the decrease in the revenuethus produced two and a half millions of duties have been relinquishedby two biennial reductions under the act of 1833, and probably as muchmore upon the importation of iron for railroads by special legislation.

Whilst such has been our condition for the last four years in relationto revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to anunavoidable continuance of large extraordinary expenses necessarilygrowing out of past transactions, and which could not be immediatelyarrested without great prejudice to the public interest. Of these, thecharge upon the Treasury in consequence of the Cherokee treaty alone,without adverting to others arising out of Indian treaties, has alreadyexceeded $5,000,000; that for the prosecution of measures for theremoval of the Seminole Indians, which were found in progress, has beennearly fourteen millions, and the public buildings have required theunusual sum of nearly three millions.

It affords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that fromthe commencement of this period to the present day every demand uponthe Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. This hasbeen done not only without creating a permanent debt or a resort toadditional taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadilyprogressive reduction of existing burdens upon the people, leavingstill a considerable balance of available funds which will remain inthe Treasury at the end of the year. The small amount of Treasury notes,not exceeding $4,500,000, still outstanding, and less by twenty-threemillions than the United States have in deposit with the States, iscomposed of such only as are not yet due or have not been presentedfor payment. They may be redeemed out of the accruing revenue if theexpenditures do not exceed the amount within which they may, it isthought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest, and therevenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated.

Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of thesecircumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness thatthe Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in everyemergency to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contractsaccording to the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to presentwhen most needed a rallying point by which the business of the wholecountry might be brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a resultvitally important as well to the interests as to the morals of thepeople. There can surely now be no difference of opinion in regardto the incalculable evils that would have arisen if the Government atthat critical moment had suffered itself to be deterred from upholdingthe only true standard of value, either by the pressure of adversecircumstances or the violence of unmerited denunciation. The mannerin which the people sustained the performance of this duty was highlyhonorable to their fortitude and patriotism. It can not fail tostimulate their agents to adhere under all circumstances to the line ofduty and to satisfy them of the safety with which a course really rightand demanded by a financial crisis may in a community like ours bepursued, however apparently severe its immediate operation.

The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly aspossible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting everytemptation to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the samefavorable light. Among the many objections to a national debt, thecertain tendency of public securities to concentrate ultimately in thecoffers of foreign stockholders is one which is every day gatheringstrength. Already have the resources of many of the States and thefuture industry of their citizens been indefinitely mortgaged to thesubjects of European Governments to the amount of twelve millionsannually to pay the constantly accruing interest on borrowed money--asum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole United States.The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to scrutinize themanagement of our domestic affairs, if not actually to intermeddle withthem, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to say of seriousalarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the exception of anobligation entered into in behalf of the District of Columbia, whichmust soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from any such embarrassment.It is also, as is believed, the only Government which, having fully andfaithfully paid all its creditors, has also relieved itself entirelyfrom debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable and so honorable toour national character should be an object of earnest solicitude. Nevershould a free people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose themselvesto the necessity of having to treat of the peace, the honor, or thesafety of the Republic with the governments of foreign creditors, who,however well disposed they may be to cultivate with us in generalfriendly relations, are nevertheless by the law of their own conditionmade hostile to the success and permanency of political institutionslike ours. Most humiliating may be the embarrassments consequent uponsuch a condition. Another objection, scarcely less formidable, to thecommencement of a new debt is its inevitable tendency to increase inmagnitude and to foster national extravagance. He has been anunprofitable observer of events who needs at this day to be admonishedof the difficulties which a government habitually dependent on loansto sustain its ordinary expenditures has to encounter in resistingthe influences constantly exerted in favor of additional loans; bycapitalists, who enrich themselves by government securities for amountsmuch exceeding the money they actually advance--a prolific source ofindividual aggrandizement in all borrowing countries; by stockholders,who seek their gains in the rise and fall of public stocks; and bythe selfish importunities of applicants for appropriations for worksavowedly for the accommodation of the public, but the real objects ofwhich are too frequently the advancement of private interests. The knownnecessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxesfor the payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additionaland very cogent reason why the Federal Government should refrain fromcreating a national debt, by which the people would be exposed todouble taxation for a similar object. We possess within ourselvesample resources for every emergency, and we may be quite sure thatour citizens in no future exigency will be unwilling to supply theGovernment with all the means asked for the defense of the country.In time of peace there can, at all events, be no justification for thecreation of a permanent debt by the Federal Government. Its limitedrange of constitutional duties may certainly under such circumstances beperformed without such a resort. It has, it is seen, been avoided duringfour years of greater fiscal difficulties than have existed in a similarperiod since the adoption of the Constitution, and one also remarkablefor the occurrence of extraordinary causes of expenditures.

But to accomplish so desirable an object two things are indispensable:First, that the action of the Federal Government be kept withinthe boundaries prescribed by its founders, and, secondly, that allappropriations for objects admitted to be constitutional, and theexpenditure of them also, be subjected to a standard of rigid butwell-considered and practical economy. The first depends chiefly onthe people themselves--the opinions they form of the true constructionof the Constitution and the confidence they repose in the politicalsentiments of those they select as their representatives in the FederalLegislature; the second rests upon the fidelity with which their moreimmediate representatives and other public functionaries discharge thetrusts committed to them. The duty of economizing the expenses of thepublic service is admitted on all hands; yet there are few subjects uponwhich there exists a wider difference of opinion than is constantlymanifested in regard to the fidelity with which that duty is discharged.Neither diversity of sentiment nor even mutual recriminations upon apoint in respect to which the public mind is so justly sensitive canwell be entirely avoided, and least so at periods of great politicalexcitement. An intelligent people, however, seldom fail to arrive in theend at correct conclusions in such a matter. Practical economy in themanagement of public affairs can have no adverse influence to contendwith more powerful than a large surplus revenue, and the unusuallylarge appropriations for 1837 may without doubt, independently of theextraordinary requisitions for the public service growing out of thestate of our Indian relations, be in no inconsiderable degree tracedto this source. The sudden and rapid distribution of the large surplusthen in the Treasury and the equally sudden and unprecedentedly severerevulsion in the commerce and business of the country, pointing withunerring certainty to a great and protracted reduction of the revenue,strengthened the propriety of the earliest practicable reduction of thepublic expenditures.

But to change a system operating upon so large a surface and applicableto such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more than thework of a day. The attention of every department of the Government wasimmediately and in good faith directed to that end, and has been socontinued to the present moment. The estimates and appropriations forthe year 1838 (the first over which I had any control) were somewhatdiminished. The expenditures of 1839 were reduced $6,000,000. Those of1840, exclusive of disbursements for public debt and trust claims, willprobably not exceed twenty-two and a half millions, being between twoand three millions less than those of the preceding year and nine orten millions less than those of 1837. Nor has it been found necessaryin order to produce this result to resort to the power conferred byCongress of postponing certain classes of the public works, except bydeferring expenditures for a short period upon a limited portion ofthem, and which postponement terminated some time since--at the momentthe Treasury Department by further receipts from the indebted banksbecame fully assured of its ability to meet them without prejudice tothe public service in other respects. Causes are in operation whichwill, it is believed, justify a still further reduction, without injuryto any important national interest. The expenses of sustaining thetroops employed in Florida have been gradually and greatly reducedthrough the persevering efforts of the War Department, and a reasonablehope may be entertained that the necessity for military operations inthat quarter will soon cease. The removal of the Indians from withinour settled borders is nearly completed. The pension list, one of theheaviest charges upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing by death.The most costly of our public buildings are either finished or nearlyso, and we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued exemptionfrom border difficulties.

The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next isestimated at $1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from allsources during the next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient toenable the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitablebalance in the Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial measuresconnected with the customs and the public lands heretofore recommendedare adopted and the new appropriations by Congress shall not carry theexpenditures beyond the official estimates.

The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of thepublic money, prescribing the kind of currency to be received for thepublic revenue and providing additional guards and securities againstlosses, has now been several months in operation. Although it might bepremature upon an experience of such limited duration to form a definiteopinion in regard to the extent of its influences in correcting manyevils under which the Federal Government and the country have hithertosuffered, especially those that have grown out of banking expansions, adepreciated currency, and official defalcations, yet it is but right tosay that nothing has occurred in the practical operation of the systemto weaken in the slightest degree, but much to strengthen, the confidentanticipations of its friends. The grounds of these have been heretoforeso fully explained as to require no recapitulation. In respect to thefacility and convenience it affords in conducting the public service,and the ability of the Government to discharge through its agency everyduty attendant on the collection, transfer, and disbursement of thepublic money with promptitude and success, I can say with confidencethat the apprehensions of those who felt it to be their duty to opposeits adoption have proved to be unfounded. On the contrary, this branchof the fiscal affairs of the Government has been, and it is believed mayalways be, thus carried on with every desirable facility and security.A few changes and improvements in the details of the system, withoutaffecting any principles involved in it, will be submitted to you by theSecretary of the Treasury, and will, I am sure, receive at your handsthat attention to which they may on examination be found to be entitled.

I have deemed this brief summary of our fiscal affairs necessaryto the due performance of a duty specially enjoined upon me by theConstitution. It will serve also to illustrate more fully the principlesby which I have been guided in reference to two contested points in ourpublic policy which were earliest in their development and have beenmore important in their consequences than any that have arisen underour complicated and difficult, yet admirable, system of government.I allude to a national debt and a national bank. It was in these that thepolitical contests by which the country has been agitated ever since theadoption of the Constitution in a great measure originated, and there istoo much reason to apprehend that the conflicting interests and opposingprinciples thus marshaled will continue as heretofore to produce similarif not aggravated consequences.

Coming into office the declared enemy of both, I have earnestlyendeavored to prevent a resort to either.

The consideration that a large public debt affords an apology, andproduces in some degree a necessity also, for resorting to a systemand extent of taxation which is not only oppressive throughout, but islikewise so apt to lead in the end to the commission of that most odiousof all offenses against the principles of republican government, theprostitution of political power, conferred for the general benefit,to the aggrandizement of particular classes and the gratification ofindividual cupidity, is alone sufficient, independently of the weightyobjections which have already been urged, to render its creation andexistence the sources of bitter and unappeasable discord. If we addto this its inevitable tendency to produce and foster extravagantexpenditures of the public moneys, by which a necessity is created fornew loans and new burdens on the people, and, finally, refer to theexamples of every government which has existed for proof, how seldom itis that the system, when once adopted and implanted in the policy of acountry, has failed to expand itself until public credit was exhaustedand the people were no longer able to endure its increasing weight, itseems impossible to resist the conclusion that no benefits resultingfrom its career, no extent of conquest, no accession of wealth toparticular classes, nor any nor all its combined advantages, cancounterbalance its ultimate but certain results--a splendid governmentand an impoverished people.

If a national bank was, as is undeniable, repudiated by the framers ofthe Constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States and theliberties of the people; if from the beginning it has been regarded bylarge portions of our citizens as coming in direct collision with thatgreat and vital amendment of the Constitution which declares that allpowers not conferred by that instrument on the General Government arereserved to the States and to the people; if it has been viewed by themas the first great step in the march of latitudinous construction, whichunchecked would render that sacred instrument of as little value as anunwritten constitution, dependent, as it would alone be, for its meaningon the interested interpretation of a dominant party, and affording nosecurity to the rights of the minority--if such is undeniably the case,what rational grounds could have been conceived for anticipating aughtbut determined opposition to such an institution at the present day.

Could a different result have been expected when the consequences whichhave flowed from its creation, and particularly from its struggles toperpetuate its existence, had confirmed in so striking a manner theapprehensions of its earliest opponents; when it had been so clearlydemonstrated that a concentrated money power, wielding so vast a capitaland combining such incalculable means of influence, may in thosepeculiar conjunctures to which this Government is unavoidably exposedprove an overmatch for the political power of the people themselves;when the true character of its capacity to regulate according to itswill and its interests and the interests of its favorites the value andproduction of the labor and property of every man in this extendedcountry had been so fully and fearfully developed; when it was notoriousthat all classes of this great community had, by means of the power andinfluence it thus possesses, been infected to madness with a spirit ofheedless speculation; when it had been seen that, secure in the supportof the combination of influences by which it was surrounded, it couldviolate its charter and set the laws at defiance with impunity; andwhen, too, it had become most apparent that to believe that such anaccumulation of powers can ever be granted without the certainty ofbeing abused was to indulge in a fatal delusion?

To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitableconsequences I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect thepolicy of confining the appropriations for the public service to suchobjects only as are clearly within the constitutional authority of theFederal Government; of excluding from its expenses those improvident andunauthorized grants of public money for works of internal improvementwhich were so wisely arrested by the constitutional interposition of mypredecessor, and which, if they had not been so checked, would longbefore this time have involved the finances of the General Governmentin embarrassments far greater than those which are now experienced byany of the States; of limiting all our expenditures to that simple,unostentatious, and economical administration of public affairs which isalone consistent with the character of our institutions; of collectingannually from the customs, and the sales of public lands a revenue fullyadequate to defray all the expenses thus incurred; but under no pretensewhatsoever to impose taxes upon the people to a greater amount than wasactually necessary to the public service conducted upon the principlesI have stated.

In lieu of a national bank or a dependence upon banks of anydescription for the management of our fiscal affairs, I recommendedthe adoption of the system which is now in successful operation.That system affords every requisite facility for the transaction ofthe pecuniary concerns of the Government; will, it is confidentlyanticipated, produce in other respects many of the benefits which havebeen from time to time expected from the creation of a national bank,but which have never been realized; avoid the manifold evils inseparablefrom such an institution; diminish to a greater extent than could beaccomplished by any other measure of reform the patronage of the FederalGovernment--a wise policy in all governments, but more especially so inone like ours, which works well only in proportion as it is made to relyfor its support upon the unbiased and unadulterated opinions of itsconstituents; do away forever all dependence on corporate bodies eitherin the raising, collecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the publicrevenues, and place the Government equally above the temptation offostering a dangerous and unconstitutional institution at home or thenecessity of adapting its policy to the views and interests of a stillmore formidable money power abroad.

It is by adopting and carrying out these principles under circumstancesthe most arduous and discouraging that the attempt has been made, thusfar successfully, to demonstrate to the people of the United States thata national bank at all times, and a national debt except it be incurredat a period when the honor and safety of the nation demand the temporarysacrifice of a policy which should only be abandoned in such exigencies,are not merely unnecessary, but in direct and deadly hostility to theprinciples of their Government and to their own permanent welfare.

The progress made in the development of these positions appears in thepreceding sketch of the past history and present state of the financialconcerns of the Federal Government. The facts there stated fullyauthorize the assertion that all the purposes for which this Governmentwas instituted have been accomplished during four years of greaterpecuniary embarrassment than were ever before experienced in time ofpeace, and in the face of opposition as formidable as any that was everbefore arrayed against the policy of an Administration; that this hasbeen done when the ordinary revenues of the Government were generallydecreasing as well from the operation of the laws as the conditionof the country, without the creation of a permanent public debt orincurring any liability other than such as the ordinary resources ofthe Government will speedily discharge, and without the agency of anational bank.

If this view of the proceedings of the Government for the period itembraces be warranted by the facts as they are known to exist; if theArmy and Navy have been sustained to the full extent authorized by law,and which Congress deemed sufficient for the defense of the country andthe protection of its rights and its honor; if its civil and diplomaticservice has been equally sustained; if ample provision has been made forthe administration of justice and the execution of the laws; if theclaims upon public gratitude in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolutionhave been promptly met and faithfully discharged; if there have been nofailures in defraying the very large expenditures growing out of thatlong-continued and salutary policy of peacefully removing the Indians toregions of comparative safety and prosperity; if the public faith has atall times and everywhere been most scrupulously maintained by a promptdischarge of the numerous, extended, and diversified claims on theTreasury--if all these great and permanent objects, with many othersthat might be stated, have for a series of years, marked by peculiarobstacles and difficulties, been successfully accomplished without aresort to a permanent debt or the aid of a national bank, have we nota right to expect that a policy the object of which has been to sustainthe public service independently of either of these fruitful sources ofdiscord will receive the final sanction of a people whose unbiased andfairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is never ultimately wrong?

That embarrassments in the pecuniary concerns of individuals ofunexampled extent and duration have recently existed in this as in othercommercial nations is undoubtedly true. To suppose it necessary nowto trace these reverses to their sources would be a reflection on theintelligence of my fellow-citizens. Whatever may have been the obscurityin which the subject was involved during the earlier stages of therevulsion, there can not now be many by whom the whole question is notfully understood.

Not deeming it within the constitutional powers of the GeneralGovernment to repair private losses sustained by reverses in businesshaving no connection with the public service, either by directappropriations from the Treasury or by special legislation designed tosecure exclusive privileges and immunities to individuals or classesin preference to or at the expense of the great majority necessarilydebarred from any participation in them, no attempt to do so has beeneither made, recommended, or encouraged by the present Executive.

It is believed, however, that the great purposes for the attainment ofwhich the Federal Government was instituted have not been lost sightof. Intrusted only with certain limited powers, cautiously enumerated,distinctly specified, and defined with a precision and clearness whichwould seem to defy misconstruction, it has been my constant aim toconfine myself within the limits so clearly marked out and so carefullyguarded. Having always been of opinion that the best preservative ofthe union of the States is to be found in a total abstinence from theexercise of all doubtful powers on the part of the Federal Governmentrather than in attempts to assume them by a loose construction of theConstitution or an ingenious perversion of its words, I have endeavoredto avoid recommending any measure which I had reason to apprehend would,in the opinion even of a considerable minority of my fellow-citizens, beregarded as trenching on the rights of the States or the provisions ofthe hallowed instrument of our Union. Viewing the aggregate powers ofthe Federal Government as a voluntary concession of the States, itseemed to me that such only should be exercised as were at the timeintended to be given.

I have been strengthened, too, in the propriety of this course by theconviction that all efforts to go beyond this tend only to producedissatisfaction and distrust, to excite jealousies, and to provokeresistance. Instead of adding strength to the Federal Government, evenwhen successful they must ever prove a source of incurable weakness byalienating a portion of those whose adhesion is indispensable to thegreat aggregate of united strength and whose voluntary attachment isin my estimation far more essential to the efficiency of a governmentstrong in the best of all possible strength--the confidence andattachment of all those who make up its constituent elements.

Thus believing, it has been my purpose to secure to the whole people andto every member of the Confederacy, by general, salutary, and equal lawsalone, the benefit of those republican institutions which it was the endand aim of the Constitution to establish, and the impartial influenceof which is in my judgment indispensable to their preservation. I cannot bring myself to believe that the lasting happiness of the people,the prosperity of the States, or the permanency of their Union can bemaintained by giving preference or priority to any class of citizensin the distribution of benefits or privileges, or by the adoptionof measures which enrich one portion of the Union at the expense ofanother; nor can I see in the interference of the Federal Governmentwith the local legislation and reserved rights of the States a remedyfor present or a security against future dangers.

The first, and assuredly not the least, important step toward relievingthe country from the condition into which it had been plunged byexcesses in trade, banking, and credits of all kinds was to place thebusiness transactions of the Government itself on a solid basis, givingand receiving in all cases value for value, and neither countenancingnor encouraging in others that delusive system of credits from which ithas been found so difficult to escape, and which has left nothing behindit but the wrecks that mark its fatal career.

That the financial affairs of the Government are now and have beenduring the whole period of these wide-spreading difficulties conductedwith a strict and invariable regard to this great fundamental principle,and that by the assumption and maintenance of the stand thus taken onthe very threshold of the approaching crisis more than by any othercause or causes whatever the community at large has been shielded fromthe incalculable evils of a general and indefinite suspension of speciepayments, and a consequent annihilation for the whole period it mighthave lasted of a just and invariable standard of value, will, it isbelieved, at this period scarcely be questioned.

A steady adherence on the part of the Government to the policy which hasproduced such salutary results, aided by judicious State legislationand, what is not less important, by the industry, enterprise,perseverance, and economy of the American people, can not fail to raisethe whole country at an early period to a state of solid and enduringprosperity, not subject to be again overthrown by the suspension ofbanks or the explosion of a bloated credit system. It is for the peopleand their representatives to decide whether or not the permanent welfareof the country (which all good citizens equally desire, however widelythey may differ as to the means of its accomplishment) shall be in thisway secured, or whether the management of the pecuniary concerns of theGovernment, and by consequence to a great extent those of individualsalso, shall be carried back to a condition of things which fosteredthose contractions and expansions of the currency and those recklessabuses of credit from the baleful effects of which the country has sodeeply suffered--a return that can promise in the end no better resultsthan to reproduce the embarrassments the Government has experienced, andto remove from the shoulders of the present to those of fresh victimsthe bitter fruits of that spirit of speculative enterprise to which ourcountrymen are so liable and upon which the lessons of experience are sounavailing. The choice is an important one, and I sincerely hope that itmay be wisely made.

A report from the Secretary of War, presenting a detailed view of theaffairs of that Department, accompanies this communication.

The desultory duties connected with the removal of the Indians, inwhich the Army has been constantly engaged on the northern and westernfrontiers and in Florida, have rendered it impracticable to carry intofull effect the plan recommended by the Secretary for improving itsdiscipline. In every instance where the regiments have been concentratedthey have made great progress, and the best results may be anticipatedfrom a continuance of this system. During the last season a part of thetroops have been employed in removing Indians from the interior to theterritory assigned them in the West--a duty which they have performedefficiently and with praiseworthy humanity--and that portion of themwhich has been stationed in Florida continued active operations therethroughout the heats of summer.

The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, of which asuccinct account is given in my message of 1838, and of the wisdom andexpediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been continued in activeoperation throughout the whole period of my Administration. Since thespring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have been removed to their newhomes west of the Mississippi, and I am happy to add that all accountsconcur in representing the result of this measure as eminentlybeneficial to that people.

The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with seriousdifficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been commencedby the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they would becompelled by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. Theexecution of the treaty of Paynes Landing, signed in 1832, but notratified until 1834, was postponed at the solicitation of the Indiansuntil 1836, when they again renewed their agreement to remove peaceablyto their new homes in the West. In the face of this solemn and renewedcompact they broke their faith and commenced hostilities by the massacreof Major Dade's command, the murder of their agent, General Thompson,and other acts of cruel treachery. When this alarming and unexpectedintelligence reached the seat of Government, every effort appears tohave been made to reenforce General Clinch, who commanded the troopsthen in Florida. General Eustis was dispatched with reenforcements fromCharleston, troops were called out from Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia,and General Scott was sent to take the command, with ample powers andample means. At the first alarm General Gaines organized a force atNew Orleans, and without waiting for orders landed in Florida, wherehe delivered over the troops he had brought with him to General Scott.

Governor Call was subsequently appointed to conduct a summer campaign,and at the close of it was replaced by General Jesup. These eventsand changes took place under the Administration of my predecessor.Notwithstanding the exertions of the experienced officers who hadcommand there for eighteen months, on entering upon the administrationof the Government I found the Territory of Florida a prey to Indianatrocities. A strenuous effort was immediately made to bring thosehostilities to a close, and the army under General Jesup was reenforceduntil it amounted to 10,000 men, and furnished with abundant suppliesof every description. In this campaign a great number of the enemywere captured and destroyed, but the character of the contest onlywas changed. The Indians, having been defeated in every engagement,dispersed in small bands throughout the country and became anenterprising, formidable, and ruthless banditti. General Taylor, whosucceeded General Jesup, used his best exertions to subdue them, and wasseconded in his efforts by the officers under his command; but he toofailed to protect the Territory from their depredations. By an actof signal and cruel treachery they broke the truce made with them byGeneral Macomb, who was sent from Washington for the purpose of carryinginto effect the expressed wishes of Congress, and have continued theirdevastations ever since. General Armistead, who was in Florida whenGeneral Taylor left the army by permission, assumed the command, andafter active summer operations was met by propositions for peace, andfrom the fortunate coincidence of the arrival in Florida at the sameperiod of a delegation from the Seminoles who are happily settled westof the Mississippi and are now anxious to persuade their countrymen tojoin them there hopes were for some time entertained that the Indiansmight be induced to leave the Territory without further difficulty.These hopes have proved fallacious and hostilities have been renewedthroughout the whole of the Territory. That this contest has endured solong is to be attributed to causes beyond the control of the Government.Experienced generals have had the command of the troops, officers andsoldiers have alike distinguished themselves for their activity,patience, and enduring courage, the army has been constantly furnishedwith supplies of every description, and we must look for the causeswhich have so long procrastinated the issue of the contest in thevast extent of the theater of hostilities, the almost insurmountableobstacles presented by the nature of the country, the climate, andthe wily character of the savages.

The sites for marine hospitals on the rivers and lakes which I wasauthorized to select and cause to be purchased have all been designated,but the appropriation not proving sufficient, conditional arrangementsonly have been made for their acquisition. It is for Congress to decidewhether these conditional purchases shall be sanctioned and the humaneintentions of the law carried into full effect.

The Navy, as will appear from the accompanying report of the Secretary,has been usefully and honorably employed in the protection of ourcommerce and citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, on the coast ofBrazil, and in the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, consisting of thefrigate _Constellation_ and the sloop of war _Boston_, under CommodoreKearney, is now on its way to the China and Indian seas for the purposeof attending to our interests in that quarter, and Commander Aulick, inthe sloop of war _Yorktown_, has been instructed to visit the Sandwichand Society islands, the coasts of New Zealand and Japan, together withother ports and islands frequented by our whale ships, for the purposeof giving them countenance and protection should they be required. Othersmaller vessels have been and still are employed in prosecuting thesurveys of the coast of the United States directed by various acts ofCongress, and those which have been completed will shortly be laidbefore you.

The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave theBay of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects whichhave thus far been successfully accomplished. The discovery of a newcontinent, which was first seen in latitude 66 deg. 2' south, longitude 154 deg.27' east, and afterwards in latitude 66 deg. 31' south, longitude 153 deg. 40'east, by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 1,800 miles,but on which they were prevented from landing by vast bodies of icewhich encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of the enterprise.Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and good conduct of hisofficers and men, and it is but justice to that officer to state thathe appears to have performed the duties assigned him with an ardor,ability, and perseverance which give every assurance of an honorableissue to the undertaking.

The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted will exhibitthe service of that Department the past year and its present condition.The transportation has been maintained during the year to the fullextent authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have beeneffected which the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but notinvolving any material additional expenditure; the contractors havegenerally performed their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters,with few exceptions, have rendered their accounts and paid theirquarterly balances with promptitude, and the whole service of theDepartment has maintained the efficiency for which it has for severalyears been distinguished.

The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring moreexpensive services on others and the increasing wants of the countryhave for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond theaccruing revenues, the excess having been met until the past year bythe surplus which had previously accumulated. That surplus having beenexhausted and the anticipated increase in the revenue not having beenrealized owing to the depression in the commercial business of thecountry, the finances of the Department exhibit a small deficiency atthe close of the last fiscal year. Its resources, however, are ample,and the reduced rates of compensation for the transportation servicewhich may be expected on the future lettings from the general reductionof prices, with the increase of revenue that may reasonably beanticipated from the revival of commercial activity, must soon placethe finances of the Department in a prosperous condition.

Considering the unfavorable circumstances which have existed during thepast year, it is a gratifying result that the revenue has not declinedas compared with the preceding year, but, on the contrary, exhibits asmall increase, the circumstances referred to having had no other effectthan to check the expected income.

It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certainimprovements in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of themails, cheapen the transportation, insure greater regularity in theservice, and secure a considerable reduction in the rates of letterpostage--an object highly desirable. The subject is one of generalinterest to the community, and is respectfully recommended to yourconsideration.

The suppression of the African slave trade has received the continuedattention of the Government. The brig _Dolphin_ and schooner _Grampus_have been employed during the last season on the coast of Africa for thepurpose of preventing such portions of that trade as were said to beprosecuted under the American flag. After cruising off those parts ofthe coast most usually resorted to by slavers until the commencementof the rainy season, these vessels returned to the United States forsupplies, and have since been dispatched on a similar service.

From the reports of the commanding officers it appears that the trade isnow principally carried on under Portuguese colors, and they express theopinion that the apprehension of their presence on the slave coast hasin a great degree arrested the prostitution of the American flag to thisinhuman purpose. It is hoped that by continuing to maintain this forcein that quarter and by the exertions of the officers in command muchwill be done to put a stop to whatever portion of this traffic may havebeen carried on under the American flag and to prevent its use in atrade which, while it violates the laws, is equally an outrage on therights of others and the feelings of humanity. The efforts of theseveral Governments who are anxiously seeking to suppress this trafficmust, however, be directed against the facilities afforded by what arenow recognized as legitimate commercial pursuits before that object canbe fully accomplished.

Supplies of provisions, water casks, merchandise, and articles connectedwith the prosecution of the slave trade are, it is understood, freelycarried by vessels of different nations to the slave factories, and theeffects of the factors are transported openly from one slave station toanother without interruption or punishment by either of the nations towhich they belong engaged in the commerce of that region. I submitto your judgments whether this Government, having been the first toprohibit by adequate penalties the slave trade, the first to declare itpiracy, should not be the first also to forbid to its citizens all tradewith the slave factories on the coast of Africa, giving an example toall nations in this respect which if fairly followed can not fail toproduce the most effective results in breaking up those dens ofiniquity.

M. VAN BUREN.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1840_.

Hon. R.M.T. HUNTER,

_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.

SIR: I herewith transmit a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, inrelation to the navy pension fund, to which the attention of Congress isinvited, and recommend an immediate appropriation of $151,352.39 to meetthe payment of pensions becoming due on and after the 1st of January,1841.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _December 10, 1840_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit, for the action of the Senate, a communication from theSecretary of War, on the subject of the transfer of Chickasaw stock tothe Choctaw tribe, which the accompanying papers explain.

M. VAN BUREN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, _December 10, 1840_.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: I have the honor to lay before you a communication from theCommissioner of Indian Affairs, relative to the transfer of $500,000Chickasaw stock to the Choctaws in execution of the compact of 17thJanuary, 1837, between those tribes, that if you think it advisable youmay assent to the proposed transfer and lay the matter before the Senatefor the sanction of that body.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J.R. POINSETT.

WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE INDIAN AFFAIRS,

_December, 1840_.

Hon. J.R. POINSETT,

_Secretary of War_.

SIR: A compact was made on the 17th January, 1837, "subject to theapproval of the President and Senate of the United States," which itreceived from the former on the 24th March, 1837, in conformity withthe resolution of the Senate of 25th February, between the Choctaw andChickasaw tribes of Indians, of which I have the honor to inclose a copy.

By this instrument the right to occupy a portion of the Choctaw countrywest of the Mississippi was, with certain privileges, secured to theChickasaws, who agreed to pay therefor $530,000, of which $30,000were paid in 1837, and the remaining $500,000 it was agreed should beinvested under the direction of the Government of the United Statesand that the interest should be paid annually to the Choctaws.

There being no money to place in the hands of the United States,but a very large amount of Chickasaw stock under the direction of theTreasury, the reasonable desire of the Choctaws that this large fundbelonging to them should be put in their own names on the books of theGovernment can be gratified by a transfer of so much of the stock to theSecretary of War for their use, upon which the interest will be receivedand paid over to them. This will be an execution of the agreement of theparties. A sale of stocks to raise the money and then a reinvestment ofit according to the letter of the compact ought not to be resorted to onaccount of their present low price in the market.

In considering this subject in the course of the autumn the thirteentharticle of the treaty of 24th May, 1834, with the Chickasaws wasadverted to, by which it is provided: "If the Chickasaws shall be sofortunate as to procure a home within the limits of the United States,it is agreed that, with the consent of the President and Senate, so muchof their invested stock as may be necessary to the purchase of a countryfor them to settle in shall be permitted to them to be sold, or theUnited States will advance the necessary amount upon a guaranty andpledge of an equal amount of their stocks." The compact before referredto having been ratified by the President and Senate, it was doubtedwhether that was not a virtual consent to the application of so muchof the stock as would be required to pay for the land and privilegescontracted for by the said compact, and an authority for the transferof it. The question was referred to the Attorney-General, who was ofopinion that the transfer could not be legally made without the assentof the President and Senate to the particular act.

I have therefore respectfully to request that you will lay the matterbefore the President, that if he concurs in the propriety of so doing hemay give his own and ask the consent of the Senate to the proposedproceeding.

Very respectfully, your most obedient,

T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD.

WASHINGTON, _December 10, 1840_.

_To the Senate_:

I communicate a report[82] of the Secretary of State, with the documentsaccompanying it, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the20th of July last.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 82: Relating to sales and donations of public lots inWashington, D.C.]

WASHINGTON, _December 21, 1840_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate with a view toits ratification, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the UnitedStates of America and His Majesty the King of the Belgians, signed atWashington on the 29th day of March, 1840.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1840_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

Herewith I transmit a communication[83] from the Secretary of theTreasury and also copies of certain papers accompanying it, which arebelieved to embrace the information contemplated by a resolution of theHouse of Representatives of the 17th instant.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 83: Relating to the suspension of appropriations made at thelast session of Congress.]

WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1840_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report[84] fromthe Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in answer to theirresolution of the 21st instant.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 84: Transmitting correspondence with Great Britain relativeto the burning of the steamboat _Caroline_ at Schlosser, N.Y., December29, 1837.]

WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1840_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate with a view toits ratification, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the UnitedStates and Portugal, signed at Lisbon on the 26th day of August, 1840,and certain letters relating thereto, of which a list is annexed.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _December 20, 1840_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report[85] fromthe Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in answer to theirresolution of the 23d instant.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 85: Transmitting correspondence with Great Britain relative toproceedings on the part of that Government which may have a tendency tointerrupt our commerce with China.]

WASHINGTON, _January 2, 1841_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I think proper to communicate to the House of Representatives, in furtheranswer to their resolution of the 21st ultimo, the correspondence whichhas since occurred between the Secretary of State and the Britishminister on the same subject.

M. VAN BUREN.

_Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth_.

WASHINGTON, _December 29, 1840_.

Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, etc.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the26th instant, in which, in reply to a letter which I had addressed toyou on the 13th, you acquaint me that the President is not prepared tocomply with my demand for the liberation of Mr. Alexander McLeod, ofUpper Canada, now imprisoned at Lockport, in the State of New York, ona pretended charge of murder and arson, as having been engaged in thedestruction of the piratical steamboat _Caroline_ on the 29th ofDecember, 1837.

I learn with deep regret that such is the decision of the President ofthe United States, for I can not but foresee the very grave and seriousconsequences that must ensue if, besides the injury already inflictedupon Mr. McLeod of a vexatious and unjust imprisonment, any further harmshould be done to him in the progress of this extraordinary proceeding.

I have lost no time in forwarding to Her Majesty's Government in Englandthe correspondence that has taken place, and I shall await the furtherorders of Her Majesty's Government with respect to the importantquestion which that correspondence involves.

But I feel it my duty not to close this communication withoutlikewise testifying my vast regret and surprise at the expressions whichI find repeated in your letter with reference to the destruction of thesteamboat _Caroline_. I had confidently hoped that the first erroneousimpression of the character of that event, imposed upon the mind of theUnited States Government by partial and exaggerated representations,would long since have been effaced by a more strict and accurateexamination of the facts. Such an investigation must even yet,I am willing to believe, lead the United States Government to thesame conviction with which Her Majesty's authorities on the spotwere impressed--that the act was one, in the strictest sense, ofself-defense, rendered absolutely necessary by the circumstances of theoccasion for the safety and protection of Her Majesty's subjects, andjustified by the same motives and principles which upon similar andwell-known occasions have governed the conduct of illustrious officersof the United States. The steamboat _Caroline_ was a hostile vesselengaged in piratical war against Her Majesty's people, hired fromher owners for that express purpose, and known to be so beyond thepossibility of doubt. The place where the vessel was destroyed wasnominally, it is true, within the territory of a friendly power, but thefriendly power had been deprived through overbearing piratical violenceof the use of its proper authority over that portion of territory. Theauthorities of New York had not even been able to prevent the artilleryof the State from being carried off publicly at midday to be used asinstruments of war against Her Majesty's subjects. It was under suchcircumstances, which it is to be hoped will never recur, that thevessel was attacked by a party of Her Majesty's people, captured, anddestroyed. A remonstrance against the act in question has been addressedby the United States to Her Majesty's Government in England. I am notauthorized to pronounce the decision of Her Majesty's Government uponthat remonstrance, but I have felt myself bound to record in themeantime the above opinion, in order to protest in the most solemnmanner against the spirited and loyal conduct of a party of HerMajesty's officers and people being qualified, through an unfortunatemisapprehension, as I believe, of the facts, with the appellation ofoutrage or of murder.

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you the assurance of mydistinguished consideration.

H.S. FOX.

_Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Fox_.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

_Washington, December 31, 1840_.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the29th instant, in reply to mine of the 26th, on the subject of the arrestand detention of Alexander McLeod as one of the perpetrators of theoutrage committed in New York when the steamboat _Caroline_ was seizedand burnt. Full evidence of that outrage has been presented to HerBritannic Majesty's Government with a demand for redress, and of courseno discussion of the circumstances here can be either useful or proper,nor can I suppose it to be your desire to invite it. I take leave of thesubject with this single remark, that the opinion so strongly expressedby you on the facts and principles involved in the demand for reparationon Her Majesty's Government by the United States would hardly have beenhazarded had you been possessed of the carefully collected testimonywhich has been presented to your Government in support of that demand.

I avail myself of the occasion to renew to you the assurance of mydistinguished consideration.

JOHN FORSYTH.

WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1841_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit herewith a treaty concluded with the Miami Indians for thecession of their lands in the State of Indiana. The circumstancesattending this negotiation are fully set forth in the accompanyingcommunication from the Secretary of War. Although the treaty wasconcluded without positive instructions and the usual officialpreliminaries, its terms appear to be so advantageous and theacquisition of these lands are deemed so desirable by reason of theirimportance to the State of Indiana and the Government, as well as onaccount of the Indians themselves, who will be greatly benefited bytheir removal west, that I have thought it advisable to submit it tothe action of the Senate.

M. VAN BUREN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, _January 4, 1841_.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a treaty concluded with theMiami Indians of the State of Indiana, to be laid before the Senate fortheir ratification if upon due consideration of the circumstances underwhich this treaty was negotiated you should think proper to do so. Thesecircumstances are fully and correctly set forth in the accompanyingcommunication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to which I begleave respectfully to refer you.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J.R. POINSETT.

WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE INDIAN AFFAIRS,

_December 29, 1840_.

Hon. J.R. POINSETT,

_Secretary of War_.

SIR: A treaty made with the Miami tribe of Indians in the State ofIndiana on the 28th day of November last for the residue of their landsin that State has been unexpectedly received.

Great anxiety has been manifested by the citizens of Indiana and madeknown by their representatives in both Houses of Congress that a cessionof the Miami land should be procured, and it seems to have been met bya correspondent disposition on the part of the leading men among theIndians. On the 25th May last a communication was received from GeneralSamuel Milroy, subagent, etc., expressing the belief that the Miamieswould treat and that their principal chief was desirous before the closeof his life, now drawing near, to effect a negotiation, as in hisopinion the emigration or extinction of the tribe were the alternativesbefore them, and suggesting that the most judicious course would be toconduct the business informally at the annuity payment. In reply he wasinformed on the 2d July that the Department did not open negotiationsfor the purchase of Indian lands unless thereto previously authorized byCongress, and that at the request of a portion of the representation ofIndiana an estimate had been furnished of the sum that would be requiredto hold a treaty, and that if the presumed intention of obtaining theestimate should be realized an effort would be made to execute thepurpose for which the appropriation would be obtained. (Extracts fromthese letters, so far as they relate to the subject, are herewith sent,marked A.[86]) On the 31st July he renewed the subject, accompanied byan extract of a letter of 22d July to himself from Allen Hamilton, esq.,the confidential friend of Chief Richardville, urging the propriety ofa negotiation. (B.[86])

On the 12th August, no appropriation having been made by Congress, aletter was addressed to you by the Hon. O.H. Smith, of the Senate of theUnited States from Indiana, inclosing a letter from Mr. Hamilton, datedon the 11th, urging the vast importance of treating with the Miamies,as well to them as to the State, and giving the reasons which in thejudgment of both led to the conclusion that their particular case shouldform an exception to the general rule that obtains in regard of Indiantreaties, and recommending strongly the appointment of General Milroy asa suitable person to conduct the negotiation. A communication of similarcharacter (except the last feature), dated 20th August, was receivedfrom Mr. Milroy. The letter of the Hon. Mr. Smith was referred by you tothis office, and on the 27th August, after a conference with you on thesubject, I replied that exceptions to the rule stated might under verypeculiar circumstances exist, but that as the Senate certainly, andit was believed the House too, had rejected an application for anappropriation, the opening of a negotiation might be considered to beopposed to an expression of legislative opinion. In answer to thesuggestion that little or perhaps no expense need be incurred, as thetreaty could be made at the payment of the annuities, it was remarkedthat the consideration money must necessarily be large, as the Miamilands were very valuable, and an appropriation of it required, whichCongress might be disinclined to grant after what had happened; that itwas therefore deemed advisable to decline treating, and that perhaps afuture application for legislative sanction might be more successful.Of this letter a copy was sent to General Milroy as a reply on thesubject in hand to his communication of 31st July, and his letter of20th August was further answered on 2d September. (C.[86])

In consequence of the representations referred to, and probably otherswhich did not reach me, you addressed me an unofficial note on 14thSeptember, suggesting that Allen Hamilton, esq., might at the paymentof the annuities make an arrangement with the Miamies that would be"gratifying to the people as well as beneficial to the service."With this expressed wish of the head of the Department, and afterconsultation with you, I wrote unofficial letters to General SamuelMilroy and to Allen Hamilton, esq., on the 18th September, setting forththe views of the Department as hereinbefore expressed in regard ofprecedent legislative sanction and the importance to Indiana of treatingwith the Miamies, whose disposition to cede their remaining lands onjust and equitable terms might not continue. It was thought, however, tobe in keeping with the rule adopted to ascertain informally from theMiamies what they would be willing to take for their lands when it wastheir pleasure to emigrate, etc. It was doubted whether it would bejudicious to reduce the terms to writing, however informally, on accountof the difficulty there might be in convincing the Indians that it wasnot a treaty, although it was desirable, if it could be safely done,that it should be so; and they were informed that a report from themwould answer "all my purposes, as my object is to be able to say to eachbranch of Congress upon what terms the Miami lands can be had by theUnited States, so that if the terms are approved the necessary law maybe passed." It was suggested that the annuity payment would afford agood opportunity for procuring the information desired, which it wasexpected could be had without any expense, for which there were nofunds, and that if there were it would not be proper to expend themin the way proposed. (D.[86])

I desire to state the facts as they exist so fully as to exhibitprecisely what has been the action of the Department, without going intomore detail than may be necessary, and therefore annex extracts andcopies of the papers referred to instead of embodying them in thiscommunication.

On the 28th day of November last a treaty was concluded by Messrs.Samuel Milroy and Allen Hamilton with "the chiefs, warriors, and headmenof the Miami tribe of Indians," which was received here on the 19thinstant, accompanied by a letter explanatory of the treaty and statingit to have been made by "the undersigned, acting under instructionscontained in your unofficial letter dated September 18, 1840;" that itwas made at the annuity payment, when "the views and instructions of theDepartment" were "communicated to the Miami Indians in full council,"and that "after full consideration of the subject they decided to reduceto treaty form a proposition or the terms upon which they would consentto cede their remaining lands in Indiana to the United States, subject,as they understand it, to the approval of the Department and theapproval and ratification of the President and Senate of the UnitedStates before being of any binding force or efficiency as a treaty."With the original treaty I send a copy of the explanatory letter and ofa communication from General Milroy giving the reasons for the moneyprovisions made for the chief Richardville and the family of ChiefGodfrey. (E.[86])

It will be thus seen that the negotiation of a treaty was notauthorized; but if in the opinion of the President and Senate it shallbe advisable to adopt and confirm it, I do not see any legal objectionto such a course. The quantity of land ceded is estimated at about500,000 acres, for which the consideration is fixed at $550,000, or$1.10 per acre, of which $250,000 are payable presently and the balancein annual payments of $15,000, which will be discharged in twenty years.In addition, we will be bound to remove them west of the Mississippiwithin five years, the period stipulated for their emigration, and tosubsist them for one year after their arrival. These are the chiefprovisions in which the United States are interested. By the second (itis called in the treaty now submitted the "22," which, if the Presidentshould decide to lay it before the Senate, can be corrected by thatbody) article of the treaty of 6th November, 1838, there is reservedfrom the cession contained in that instrument 10 miles square for theband of Ma-to-sin-ia, in regard of which the seventh article says:

"It is further stipulated that the United States convey by patent to Me-shing-go-me-zia, son of Ma-to-sin-ia, the tract of land reserved by the twenty-second article of the treaty of 6th of November, 1838, to the band of Ma-to-sin-ia."

This is a change as to the title of a reservation heretofore sanctionedand not now ceded, and so far as the United States are concerned doesnot vary the aspect of the present compact. There are reserved to thechief Richardville seven sections of land, and to him and the family ofthe deceased chief Godfrey are to be paid, respectively, considerablesums of money, which it seems from the statement of General Milroy weredebts due to them and acknowledged by the tribe.

The treaty of November, 1838, which was ratified on the 8th February,1839, extinguished the Indian title to about 177,000 acres of land andcost the United States $335,680, or nearly $2 per acre. Measured by thisprice the present arrangement would seem to be very advantageous. It isstated by Messrs. Milroy and Hamilton that more favorable terms will notbe assented to by the Miamies under any circumstances, and consideringthe great importance of the adoption of this compact, howeverirregularly made, to the State of Indiana, as well as the belief thatany postponement will probably swallow up what remains to these Indiansin debts which they most improvidently contract and the conviction thatnothing can save them from moral ruin but their removal west, I thinkit would be judicious in all views of the matter to adopt and ratifythis treaty, and respectfully recommend that it, with the accompanyingpapers, be laid before the President, and, if he and you concur in myviews, that the sanction of it by the Senate be asked.

Respectfully submitted,

T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD.

[Footnote 86: Omitted.]

WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1841_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate to the Senate sundry papers,[87] in further answer to itsresolution of the 30th of December, 1839, which have been received fromthe governor of Florida since the adjournment of the last session ofCongress.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 87: Relating to bonds of the Territory of Florida.]

WASHINGTON, _January 6, 1841_.

Hon. R.M. JOHNSON,

_President of the Senate_.

SIR: The report of the Secretary of War herewith and the accompanyingdocuments are respectfully submitted in reply to the resolution of theSenate of June 30, 1840, calling for information in relation to thenumber of soldiers enlisted in the late war and entitled to bountyland, etc.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _January 7, 1841_.

Hon. R.M. JOHNSON,

_President of the Senate_.

SIR: The communication of the Secretary of War and the accompanyingreport of the colonel of Topographical Engineers are respectfullysubmitted in reply to the resolution of the 15th of June last, callingfor a plan and estimate for the improvement of Pennsylvania avenue westof the President's square and for the construction of a stone bridgeacross Rock Creek, etc.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1841_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the Senate, in reply to their resolution ofthe 20th of July last, a report from the Secretary of State, withaccompanying papers.[88]

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 88: Correspondence imputing malpractices to N.P. Trust,American consul at Havana, in regard to granting papers to vesselsengaged in the slave trade, etc.]

WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1841_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report, withaccompanying papers,[89] from the Secretary of State, in answer tothe resolution of the House of the 16th of December last.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 89: Relating to the origin of any political relations betweenthe United States and the Empire of China, etc.]

WASHINGTON, _January 22, 1841_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives of the United Statesa report from the Director of the Mint, exhibiting the operations ofthat institution during the year 1840, and I have to invite the specialattention of Congress to that part of the Director's report in relationto the overvaluation given to the gold in foreign coins by the act ofCongress of June 28, 1834, "regulating the value of certain foreign goldcoin within the United States."

Applications have been frequently made at the Mint for copies of medalsvoted at different times by Congress to the officers who distinguishedthemselves in the War of the Revolution and in the last war (the diesfor which are deposited in the Mint), and it is submitted to Congresswhether authority shall be given to the Mint to strike off copies ofthose medals, in bronze or other metal, to supply those persons makingapplication for them, at a cost not to exceed the actual expense ofstriking them off.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _January 29, 1841_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

By the report of the Secretary of State herewith communicated and theaccompanying papers it appears that an additional appropriation isnecessary if it should be the pleasure of Congress that the preparatoryexploration and survey of the northeastern boundary of the United Statesshould be completed.

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _February 1, 1841_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I respectfully transmit herewith a report and accompanying documentsfrom the Secretary of War, in answer to a resolution of the 22d ofDecember, 1840, requesting the President to transmit to the Senate anyinformation in his possession relative to the survey directed by the actof the 12th of June, 1838, entitled "An act to ascertain and designatethe boundary line between the State of Michigan and Territory ofWiskonsin."

M. VAN BUREN.

WASHINGTON, _February 8, 1841_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith the copy of a report from the commissioners for theexploration and survey of the northeastern boundary, in addition to thedocuments sent to Congress, with reference to a further appropriationfor the completion of the duty intrusted to the commission.

M. VAN BUREN.

_Report of the commissioners appointed by the President of the UnitedStates under the act of Congress of 20th July, 1840, for the purpose ofexploring and surveying the boundary line between the States of Maineand New Hampshire and the British Provinces_.

NEW YORK, _January 6, 1842_.

Hon. JOHN FORSYTE,

_Secretary of State_.

SIR: The commissioners, having assembled in this city in conformitywith your orders under date of 29th of July, beg leave respectfullyto report--

That the extent of country and the great length of the boundary lineincluded in the objects of their commission would have rendered itimpossible to have completed the task assigned them within the limits ofa single season. In addition to this physical impossibility, the work ofthe present year was entered upon under circumstances very unfavorablefor making any great progress. The law under which they have acted waspassed at the last period of a protracted session, when nearly halfof the season during which working parties can be kept in the fieldhad elapsed; and although no delay took place in the appointment ofcommissioners to carry it into effect, the organization of the board wasnot effected, in consequence of the refusal of one of the commissionersand the agent to accept of their nomination. The commissioners, actingunder these disadvantages, have done all that lay in their power toaccomplish the greatest practicable extent of work, and have obtainedmany results which can not but be important in the examination of thevexed and important question which has been committed to them; but afterhaving fully and maturely considered the subject and interchanged theresults of their respective operations they have come to the conclusionthat it would be premature to embody the partial results which they haveattained in a general report for the purpose of being laid before thepolitical and scientific world. The meridian line of the St. Croixhas not been carried to a distance of more than 50 miles from themonument at the source of that river, and the operations of the othercommissioners, although they have covered a wide extent of country,have fulfilled but one part of the duty assigned them, namely, that ofexploration; while even in the parts explored actual surveys will benecessary for the purpose of presenting the question in such form as canadmit of no cavil. In particular, the results of the examination of themost northern part of the line appear to differ in some points from theconclusions of the late British commission. Satisfied that the latterhave been reached in too hasty a manner and without a sufficient timehaving been expended upon comparative observations, they are cautionedby this example against committing a like error. In respect to theargumentative part of the report of the British commissioners, the dutyof furnishing a prompt and immediate reply to such parts of it as restupon the construction of treaties and the acts of diplomacy has beenrendered far less important than it might at one time have appeared bythe publication of the more important parts of the argument laid beforethe King of the Netherlands as umpire. This argument, the deliberateand studied work of men who well understood the subject, is a fullexposition of the grounds on which the claim of the United States to thewhole of the disputed territory rests. It has received the sanction ofsuccessive Administrations of opposite politics, and may therefore beconsidered, in addition to its original official character, as approvedby the whole nation. To this publication your commission beg leave torefer as embodying an argument which may be styled unanswerable.

The operations of the parties under the command of the severalcommissioners were as follows:

The party under the direction of Professor Renwick left Portland indetachments on the 26th and 27th of August. The place of generalrendezvous was fixed at Woodstock, or, failing that, at the Grand Fallsof the St. John. The commissary of the party proceeded as speedily aspossible to Oldtown, in order to procure boats and engage men. ProfessorRenwick passed by land through Brunswick, Gardiner, and Augusta. Atthe former place barometer No. 1 was compared with that of ProfessorCleaveland, at Gardiner with that of Hallowel Gardiner, esq.; andarrangements were made with them to keep registers, to be used ascorresponding observations with those of the expedition. At Augusta someadditional articles of equipment were obtained from the authorities ofthe State, but the barometer which it had been hoped might have beenprocured was found to be unfit for service. At Houlton two tents anda number of knapsacks, with some gunpowder, were furnished by thepoliteness of General Bustis from the Government stores.

The boats and all the stores reached Woodstock on the 3d September, andall the party were collected except one engineer, who had been leftbehind at Bangor in the hopes of obtaining another barometer. A bateauwas therefore left to bring him on. The remainder of the boats wereloaded, and the party embarked on the St. John on the morning of the4th of September. This, the main body, reached the Grand Falls at noonon the 8th of September. The remaining bateau, with the engineer, arrivedthe next evening, having ascended the rapids of the St. John in a timeshort beyond precedent. On its arrival it was found that the barometer,on whose receipt reliance had been placed, had not been completed intime, and although, as was learnt afterwards, it had been committed assoon as finished by the maker to the care of Major Graham, the othercommissioners felt compelled to set out before he had joined them. Thewant of this barometer, in which defects observed in the others had beenremedied, was of no little detriment.

A delay of eighteen days had occurred in Portland in consequence of therefusal of Messrs. Cleavelaud and Jarvis to accept their appointments,and it was known from the experience of the commissioners sent out in1838 by the State of Maine that it would require at least three weeksto reach the line claimed by the United States from Bangor. It wastherefore imperative to push forward, unless the risk of having thewhole of the operations of this party paralyzed by the setting in ofwinter was to be encountered. It was also ascertained at the Grand Fallsthat the streams which were to be ascended were always shallow andrapid, and that at the moment they were extremely low, so that the boatswould not carry more stores than would be consumed within the timerequired to reach the region assigned to Professor Renwick as his shareof the duty and return. It became, therefore, necessary, as it had beenbefore feared it must, to be content with an exploration instead of aclose and accurate survey. Several of the men employed had been at thenorthern extremity of the meridian line, but their knowledge was limitedto that single object. Inquiry was carefully made for guides through thecountry between the sources of the Grande Fourche of Restigouche and ofTuladi, but none were to be found. One Indian only had passed from thehead of Green River to the Grande Fourche, but his knowledge was limitedto a single path, in a direction not likely to shed any light on theobject of the commission. He was, however, engaged. The French huntersof Madawaska had never penetrated beyond the sources of Green River, andthe Indians who formerly resided on the upper waters of the St. Johnwere said to have abandoned the country for more than twelve years.

The party was now divided into four detachments, the first to proceeddown the Restigouche to the tide of the Bay of Chaleurs, the second toascend the Grande Fourche of Restigouche to its source, the third to bestationed on Green River Mountain, the fourth to convey the surplusstores and heavy baggage to Lake Temiscouata and thence to ascend theTuladi and Abagusquash to the highest accessible point of the latter.It was resolved that the second and fourth detachments should endeavorto cross the country and meet each other, following as far as possiblethe height of land. A general rendezvous was again fixed at LakeTemiscouata.

In compliance with this plan, the first and second detachments ascendedthe Grande River together, crossed the Wagansis portage, and reached theconfluence of the Grande Fourche and southwest branch of Restigouche.

The first detachment then descended the united stream, returned by thesame course to the St. John, and reached the portage at Temiscouata onthe 7th October. All the intended objects of the detachment were happilyaccomplished.

The second detachment, under the personal direction of the commissioner,reached the junction of the north and south branches of the GrandeFourche on the 22d September. Two engineers, with two men to carryprovisions, were then dispatched to cross the country to the meridianline, and thence to proceed westward to join the detachment at KedgwickLake. This duty was performed and many valuable observations obtained,but an accident, by which the barometer was broken, prevented all theanticipated objects of the mission from being accomplished.

All the stores which could possibly be spared were now placed in a depotat the junction of the south branch, and the commissioner proceeded withthe boats thus lightened toward Kedgwick Lake. The lightening of theboats was rendered necessary in consequence of the diminution of thevolume of the river and the occurrence of falls, over which it wouldhave been impossible to convey them when fully loaded. For want of aguide, a branch more western than that which issues from the lake wasentered. One of the boats was therefore sent round into the lake to